I have one request for this diary. If you have a serious difference of opinion/I get something very, very wrong, please just PM me as I'd like to keep this diary as clean as possible (and I'll correct it in diary by giving you credit). If you love it, please give me feedback, but I don't want to have to keep arguing difference of opinion in this diary. That's what PM is for after all.

Note #1: Please read Eidenhoek's NYCW diary as there are some really good things in it for newer players that I'm going to gloss over in this diary because he did it well and first. So, you might refer to this diary as a 102 diary.

This diary is designed to guide people through playing a 3x0/$1000 game aka a 0 Popularity/0 Prestige/0 Momentum/$1000 game. The type of 3x0/$1000 game I'm going to be doing is a subset of this type of game called Road to Glory. A Road to Glory (RtG) game gives you a specific goal for the end game. You are to take your User Character from a very mediocre 19 year old wrestler to Main Eventing a PPV event for a National fed getting a 95+ match rating.

Your character is given 750 points for all skills, 100 for Heel/Face, and 250 for Gimmick types (Brute, Cocky, etc) except Reputation and Resilience which are both set at 100 AND your potential is set to Excellent. You do have a stat cap of 75 when starting out so no 100 Star Quality to start with. You also get a roll at the end of each year (whenever the game starts not necessarily January) that can give you positives and negatives to your promotion or user character. To better understand some of the skills, I'm going to give you a breakdown with the pros and cons of dumping points into them.

Step 1: User Character

Star Quality:You get a bonus in matches at 60+ and your popularity cap is tied directly to this stat meaning a low SQ could cap you too low to meet your goal. This skill CAN'T be improved in matches.Psychology and all other Performance row skills: You want to have at least 35's across the board as anything lower tends to be a real problem in matches however these easily improve during matches.Top Row Stats: You need to have a type of wrestler in mind and then funnel most of those points into that grouping. Is he a brawler, technician, or high flier? Also, having a decent Flashiness isn't a bad thng either. Also, you can improve these stats directly in matches quite easily.Stamina: This is an essential stat for a wrestler as this tells you how long a wrestler can go in a singles match (tag matches can go longer). Also, this is the single easiest skill to improve as all you have to do is keep putting them in slightly longer matches than he can normally handle. Something in the 35-45 range is plenty.The Other Physical Skills: These are Athleticism, Toughness, and Power. This goes back to what type of wrestler he is going to be. Put points into the ones that fit your wrestler with a min. of 20 per stat as these are much, much harder to improve in matches but aren't critical to the match rating.Intensity and Stiffness: You can make your guy a very stiff worker if you want, but the points are better used elsewhere. Somewhere in the 20's is fine.Referee and MMA: If you are a stat head, you can put 1 point each in these as they won't grow if they are set to 0. Otherwise, you're really wasting points here.Entertainment Skills: Again, if you are a stat head, put 1 point in Announcing. Otherwise, we're focusing on Mic, Charisma, & Acting. Those improve only when you are in angles that are 6 minutes or longer. Note: Your role doen't even have to be rated or rated on Entertainment to improve those skills. Also, if you put him in the 2nd chair on the announce team, he will gain Charisma. Depending on the type of fed you aim to end up with, you may want to use lots of points there, or just know that you'll be using a manager at National.

So, be creative with your User Character as it is for YOU. Here is my UC for the game.

Last edited by smartman : 02-16-2012 at 02:27 AM.
Reason: Fixing a typo

I'm not going to tell you to play this game with the Cornellverse. The beauty of TEW 10 is that there is a pretty vibrant mod community out there to pick from. In fact, I'm purposely not using the CV as again, I don't want to step on Eidenhoek's toes or the other good 4x0 diaries on here. The other beauty is that you can import your User Character into any database though make sure to change his birthdate so he's 19 (also, it is helpful to set the month to when the game starts).

Now, once you pick a mod to play, you need to pick a promotion to play. You can either play as one that is set to open in the future, or you can import a fed from another database and change its start date to the month and year the game starts. Also, remember that this is a 3x0 game so you have to set their popularity and prestige to 0 and momentum to F-.

After doing this, you reach a critical decision. Where do I put my fed? Keep in mind that Regional Battles start when there are 3 Regional or Small feds that have at least 17 (E-) popularity in the same region so you don't want to start in a crowded area. Also, it is a very good idea to look at TV coverage as it is really sour to start in one region and find out that if you started in the region next door, you would have TV much sooner. It's a good idea to start a test game as you can check all of these things out AND get an idea of what workers you can get as well.

Okay, you have your region picked out. You have two things left to do. The easy one is deciding what type of fed you are running. Most people have a set fed type that they like to run so make sure you set that in the Product before you start the game (if you forget, go ahead and change it in the Editor). Though I will add that it would be a good idea to check out the Trends in the Gameplay Info button in the Database Editor before you start as being a Medium or Strong Positive has major benefits and being untrendy has severe drawbacks to how fast you grow.

Note: There is one rule in RtG games on movement. You can't jump feds that are more than 1 step above you. For instance, you start at Local so you can only jump to Small. So, you can't start the game and jump immediately to WWF/E or SWF. Also, you are very unlikely to move anywhere for the first 2-3 years as you don't get any booking points to start with and your booking reputation is set to Very Low. If you go broke/get fired, you can sign up with any other fed that is at the level or lower you were at when you get fired.

Ah, the 2nd thing you have to do. RtG games mean you are forever a booker ONLY. This means you need to pick your owner. You can do it randomly, but again, you're a Local fed with very limited funds. The worst thing to happen is that someone that costs $2,000/month gets the job on a Written contract. So, pick someone that is cheap but talented. You can pick any particular skill (announcer, wrestler, etc) for your owner, but keep in mind, he/she is never going to leave unless they retire and keep them on PPA contracts. To assign an owner, you must give him a contract in the Database Editor to your fed. Set it to PPA and 12 months (it defaults to that in game permanently) and leave the amount blank so the game will assign the amount based on skill and economy. Once they have a contract, go back to the Promotion screen and select Power Structure. That person will now show up in the drop-down menu for Owner. Save the fed, and now you are ready to start the game.

No matter what type of product you run, there are certain things you need to look for when searching for people to fill out your roster. There are 2 specific people you need to hire to start the game. You have to have an announcer and a referee. Now, if you picked one of these to be your owner, you're one step ahead. If you haven't (most of you won't), then you need to target an announcer that has at least a 50 announcing skill, and it would help if they had some popularity in your region. Don't go too high as they tend to be too expensive. You'll be focusing mainly on people that are labeled Virtually Unknown on their popularity level though you can shoot for the occasional Independent Name IF they are well worth it. The ref should likewise have a 50 or better ref skill.

Note: I didn't say anything about a Color Commentator or Road Agent. If you can find a really, really cheap quality one of each, then go for it (a female manager is sometimes a good idea for CC as they tend to be cheap with high charisma). Otherwise, make sure you have at least 2 wrestlers on your roster than can do those roles. You're Local, and the bonus a good CC or RA gives a match is inconsequential to your show's rating. The goal is to get a show rating of greater than 20 points above your popularity after all so pocketing the money is a pretty good strategy.

Sub-note: If you do hire a CC or RA, they can do both in a match. So, say you hire a veteran with good psychology and charisma, well that's your CC & RA all in one. He/She just can't be wrestling in that match too.

Ideally, both the announcer and ref's salaries come to around $1,000 or less. Your non-wrestlers are what economists call a Sunk Cost meaning those 2 are going to be used every show so you can add their salaries plus $700 (Cost of a Small show) plus $200 for the building. So, at $1000 + $900, you're going to spend $1900 just to have the show. To put that into perspective, if you have a decent economy and a product that is either very or quite favorable to sponsorship, you will get $3800-$4300 per month. So, you've just dropped about half your money on 2 people and the show.

Now, we move to the workers. First thing to check is how many wrestlers you need. The game says that you have to have 4 Main Eventers, 5 Upper Midcarders, 2 Midcarders, and 1 Lower Midcarders for a total of 12 wrestlers (11 more since you're 1). Which brings me to my first opinion statement. That's way to freaking many people for a fed that is going to have 12 people to the show. So, let's take a 2nd look at what you need AFTER you put a brand split in. The brand split is going to let you run whatever kind of show you want without ticking off half of your roster for not using them as ME and UMC demand to be on every show. The brand split adds 1 ME, 2 UMC, and 1 each MC and LMC for a new total of 17 wrestlers (again 16 plus you). Just make sure you put everyone on one brand and set your show to the other brand.

Okay, so you're looking for people that aren't very popular (Virtually Unknowns typically have less than 20 popularity in their home country). What else should I look for?

Psychology is the most important skill in the game! At 60, two wrestlers can call a match in the ring which is what you should be shooting for in the main event. Plus, as was stated earlier, if you skip hiring a Road Agent, you'll need at least 2 people with a 60+ psychology (and around 40+ respect) to fill that role. So, sign everyone you can afford with 60+ psychology.

Let's stop to take a look at what bonuses and negatives a match can have. You can see them if you turn off Keep Dirt Sheet hidden in the User Options.

Positives

Star Quality—If over 60
Call in the Ring—Again, all wrestlers have to have 60+ psych at this level
Going All Out—This is a hidden ability. You'll find out if they have it once you run a match less than 16 minutes using the All Out note. It isn't totally hidden as generally the worker has to have at least one top row skill in the 60's to use it but not always. It's best to keep a list in the notes section of who can and can't go all out. Oh, and my user character never can go all out.
Charisma—Again over 60 Charisma
Announcing, Color Commentary, Road Agent, and Ref—Only if they have that position (so your wrestlers who are your CC and RA won't give you that bonus) and if they are better than what the match would get without them.
Open Match—If you use the Open Match note, you will get a positive note. The one drawback to that note is that it mutes the winner's popularity gain from the match.

Negatives

Stamina—If you run a match longer than their stamina allows
Psychical Condition—If a wrestler has a yellow or red body part, you'll get this note
Consistency—Wrestler has less than 60 consistency stat
Psychology—If you try to call in the ring with a wrestler with less than 60 psychology
All Out—If the wrestler can't go all out. However, in a multi-person match, if more wrestlers can go all out than can't, it is worth doing anyway. For instance, a 4-way match with 3 who can and one who can't should have that note

I'm sure I've left a few out.

So, the rest of your roster should be filled out with people that have high Star Quality and good top row skill(s). A good place to look is your Hidden Gems section in your Creative Meeting area. Do keep in mind that if you get foreigners in your fed that you'll need at least 2 people that speak their language or they'll be unhappy (since they won't have anyone to talk to). Also, don't worry about giving out travel expenses. Some people will absolutely demand it, but you can always renegotiate with them immediately after they sign which will get them to wave it (yes, being a skinflint owner is a good thing!). Also, save 2-4 spots for rubbish jobbers for your top people to beat the living daylights out of. These should cost no more than $150 apiece.

I'll post some screenshots of people I signed and passed on to show you what I'm talking about.

Just a couple of things as it is late, and I'm not up to a long post. First, the Road to Glory thread is located in the TEW10 General Thread. You only need to read the 1st post. It's really a lot of fun, and I want to thank the original creator and Derek B for adding in a ton of additional year-end bonuses to get.

Secondly, I'm using Genadi's wonderful 1987-The Superfly Effect mod. I fixed a few things in the data that don't effect me at all (namely WCW doesn't have 70% of their roster on Exclusive PPA contracts since the game really doesn't do that well at all. Hmmm....need to fix WWF's too though that means I won't get Bret Hart at Regional). Also, drug use has been severely toned down as the game doesn't function well with the 80's drug use (seriously, you try and use Kerry Von Erich when his spots get dinged 30 points due solely to drugs).

Remember all that stuff about picking your location carefully? Yeah, I threw that out the window mainly because I picked Sting as Owner and my main long-term signing was The Undertaker who both have 40's in pop in the Mid South meaning I'm going to end up in a Regional battle as soon as I hit 17 pop. There are good TV options at Regional though so that's good, and Mid South is a 95% area meaning you hit Growth Levels earlier.

This is a good mod in two respects. One, there are only 23 feds (with the 3rd in Mid South debuting in August) so you tend to not see overly-stretched workers which makes scheduling easier. Two, there are no development feds from Hell snapping up all of your roster every 2 months! Play Derek B's Cornellverse 97 mod if you like being a sado-masochist. There is one drawback to it though. The non-wrestlers are really expensive. Remember I said shoot for $1000 for both announcer and ref? Well, most refs demand $1000 and the announcers are close to that which can put you in a little bit of a pinch. Oh, and that little narrative that tanks the economy in October. It does help you sign people at Small though as people sign for less during a crappy economy.

Oh, and remember my sage wisdom of keeping two of every language if you're going to have one of them? This is what happens when you fire that 2nd guy because you needed to trim the roster. Note the first line.

And you can decide if this wrestler is worth $600/show or not (keep in mind the economy is at 72 and going up). I won't tell you who he is, but he's auto-pushed to Main Event though he only has 25 pop in Mid South with 10 everywhere else in the US. Oh, and pretty much all of you have seen at least one of his matches.

Thanks to everyone who is reading this. The answer to the Who Is This Worker is the Hardcore Legend Mick Foley. Sure, he doesn't have a 60 Psychology yet, but good lord look at the Brawling, SQ, Selling, and Menace. This is today's topic.

Why you should always have 2-4 Workers that have good Menace and/or Sex Appeal

Unless you are going to run a Much More Pop fed, which means that almost all of the match rating is based on the 2 workers' popularity, your matches are going to score pretty well. "That's really good though!" Yes, but it does have one drawback. Your angles are all based on the worker(s) popularity no matter what they are rated on (Entertainment, Mic, Acting, and Overness).

There are only a couple of exceptions to that rule. The obvious one is if they're Not Rated in the angle, though someone has to be rated in the angle or the game explodes (just kidding). The other one is Menace angles though it is somewhat based on pop too just not severely. So, if you have a couple of wrestlers with high Menace, those are the main ones you use for angles in the beginning.

Sex Appeal is kind of in-between Menace angles and regular angles in how they are rated. Pick a low-overness worker with a 67 Sex Appeal, and the angle will still score in the high-20's to 30's, but once you hit small, you can get someone like Sunshine (48 Pop;84 SA) who will give you a 66-67 Shoot T-Shirts into the Crowd Angle. Btw, that's the highest a strictly Sex Appeal angle can score. Later on, I'll show you how to avoid that cap.

The reason this is so vital is there is an insidious note you will get on all your shows if even ONE of your angles does worse than 10 points of your Overall Match rating (roughly take your last two matches and average them with a heavy weight towards your main event match). The note will say "Some of your angles didn't meet the standard of the matches", and you will get dinged at least 2 points per failing angle.

Again, the main focus you have at Local is to get the hell to Small as you get 5x-6x the sponsorship money with very little increase to your costs so anything that hurts your shows is to be avoided at all costs. "So, we should just be a soulless fed then?" Well, that's up to you, but consider your roster first. What that means is that you're going to have an hour to fill with at least 3 matches (you have to have 3 spots in your show no matter what though pre and post-show things do count) so if your roster can fill that time, being soulless (what everyone calls a no-angle fed on here) is an option. If they can't, then you're adding 2 more wrestlers to the card for a 4th match which means mo' money mo' money. Also, angles are an easy way to gain overness for your wrestlers.

I purposely left out Owner goals from the hiring rules. There's a simple reason for this. Most of your initial goals are really simple to follow that they don't usually matter. Typically, you'll get one goal against an odd worker type (MMA Crossover or Psychopath) with the rare exception of Spot Monkey that could hurt you. Then, you'll get 2 with min. 35 of a certain skill. You'll finish up with 2 Critical goals that are the ones that really matter. These are the ones that can get you fired for failing once, and it must have been serendipity that I got the worst goal for a poorly scouted database. Again, SCOUT YOUR DATABASE BEFORE YOU PLAY!!!

The first one is the one I'm talking about. Remember, there is one fed opening up at Regional in August. However, in my test game, one of the Cult feds goes bankrupt within a year so I'm good. If you get the worst note of all in your game, you can always turn off owner goals, sim a day, and turn them back on which will give you all new goals. The worst goal is the variation of #2 which states that you can't go below $0 EVER instead of at the end of the goal.

I'll leave you with the shot of my Product I'm running which I'll talk about next time along with a complete breakdown of my roster.

Before I unveil my opening roster, let me add something that tends to be glossed over too much. Everyone on your roster needs to be on there for a reason, or they need to be replaced with someone else. Now, the other thing to remember is that half of your roster are going to be losers while you push the other half. So, when you're evaluating talent to sign, figure out A)Where that person is going to be on the roster which has to do with cost benefit and B)Is this something you're going to be pushing? Obviously, you're going to run across people you go OHMYGODIMUSTPUSHHIMTOTHEMOON!!!!! However, they better have talent or your shows are going to take a hit. Now, without further ado, here is my roster.

Enhancement Talent-None (and if you have one to start, you're hiring too many people so fire some people!)
Opener-None (ditto above)Lower Midcarder-2/2 (Game Says 2/I have 2)

Adolfo Tapia (Face) $300-His Performance row stats are fabulous for a 21 year old with B's across the board except a 58 psychology which I can improve quickly. A 71 Star Quality means he'll be with me for a long time. The only downside is that he's $300 with no popularity in the US. This is the downside of signing foreigners. Sometimes you just suck it up and sign future stars like this though.

Art Barr (Face) $150-Another youngster (which all of your LMC'ers should really be btw as this is the group that can be termed Future Winners with their abilities and/or Star Quality pushing them up the card) who has solid Performance row stats who is almost ready to call in the ring with a rounded up 60 psychology. He's a slight risk with a 58 safety though with my 40 Match Intensity that isn't that big of a deal. However, if you're running a 60-100 Intensity fed, that safety stat better be higher or the body count will skyrocket.

Midcarder-3/4

El Hijo del Diablo (Heel-duh!) $200-And we run into our first loveable loser (or is that unloveable loser given his name?). He's 24, but his SQ is only 59 with nothing across the top above 41. A good thing to look for in losers centers on 3 skills-Safety, Consistency, and Selling. This means they can bump like crazy (not to be confused with Crazy Bumps) safely and consistently. He does all three things well with 68/76/69. And he's the 3rd person on my Hot Prospect with my 2 LMC. Note: People that push to UMC or ME will not appear on your Next Big Thing and Hot Prospect lists thus when you see my UMC'ers that's why.

Mark Fleming (Heel) $250-Sometimes you hire someone because they have a special skillset. He's got amazing Mat skills that I hope to pass along to Sting and Mick Foley. This is another good reason to pick a mod like this as fewer people get stolen from you. In the CV, with 3 North American National+ feds, hanging on to young talent is pretty freaking hard. If you're doing this, stay away from Midcard teachers and focus hiring better Main Eventers to do the teaching. In this game, he's not bad for $250.

Mysterion (Heel) Free-My User Character pushes here despite having no popularity anywhere. Unlike what most people do in 4x0 games by signing Jack Avatar and god-pushing, your first couple of years are going to be more focused on talent development. When you see my Upper Mids, you'll see I hired some people to do that talent development.

Tommy Jammer (Face) $150-And our first Babyface loveable loser. He's awesome backstage...and that's about it. Oh and he's cheap too. Those are the best two things to have in Loveable Losers. Tommy, meet The Undertaker and Tom Prichard. They'll be beating the hell out of you regularly.

Upper Midcarder 7/9 (And here's my main problem with auto-push. It gives you way too many Upper Mids and Main Eventers. Why oh why couldn't I have 5 Lower Midcarders?)

Bob Yuma (Face) $300-And meet the person I should have fired instead of Pat Tanaka who speaks Japanese. Instead he'll be smashed by every heel on the roster. He does have 60ish psychology (that's a 59.6-9 meaning it shows 60 but he can't call in the ring). Does have 60 Menace if I cared to use him.

Brian Pillman (Face) $600-OHMYGODIHAVETOSIGNHIMANDPUSHTOTHEMOON!!!!!! Sorry, a really huge fan of his or I would have passed on him at Local. $600 for an Upper Mid is never a good idea at Local. That said, he can call in the ring, 81 consistency, 68 mic skill, and he can fly. Oh, and 76 SQ.

Eddie Guerrero (Heel) $400/Freelancer-Yes, I'm renaming my Upper Midcard to the dead wrestlers club. However, he's just too awesome to pass up. I will explain Freelancers and why they are good to sign. You can only sign for 3 months which means you're signing them constantly, but the benefit is that they never get signed by anyone else in the game. And until you get TV, any popularity gain in your region isn't going to bump their pay up.

Jason Knight (Heel) $150-Yet another loveable loser heel. He has no popularity in the Mid South, and other than his C+'s in the 3 loser categories there isn't much to say other than he's cheap.

Jushin “Thunder” Liger (Face/Wrestling God) $400-Let's see B- across the entire top row outside of Brawling, check. His worst performance stat is a 71 psychology, check. He's consistantly named the world's top flier, check. He's an exceptionally positive influence, check. I only have him if NJPW stay below National. !@%@%^@$!#

Owen Hart (Face) $500-Another member of the dead wrestling club, and another super-talented wrestler. All B- in Technical and Flier, check. Can call in the ring, check. B+ Consistency and Basics, check. Needs a manager, darn. I'll live with that all the way to the bank.

Scott Armstrong (Face) $250-Not bad at all for him as he's 60ish in psych with that being his worst Performance stat. Only a 48 SQ stat means he'll stay around, but it will mainly be in jobber tag teams (hey, like real life!). Still $250 with multiple possible relationships is well worth it once he can call in the ring.

Shinobi (aka Al Snow in a mask) (Face) $150-Decent Brawler, 60 SQ, and good performance row stats except in psych (48) make him a long-term project, but as long as he's that cheap, he's got a home on my roster.

Tim Patterson (Heel) $150-A Light Heavyweight on a roster full of lightweights-middleweights, he's here because he's cheap and good in the 3 loser skills. Oh, and that 25 pop that I'm going to steal from him.

Main Eventers 5/7

In descending order based on their Franchise Player ranking

1. Sting (Face/Owner) $500-He's the Stinger for crying out loud! He's going to be my CC early on (84 Charisma). He has 75 Menace and 45 Pop for angles, a 58 psych, 86 SQ, and 85 Consistency meaning he brings it every single match.

2. The Undertaker (Heel-duh) $100-The yang to Sting's yen, he's the other cornerstone of Superior Wrestling. Sure, he can't call in the ring and won't be able to for some time (47 psych), but 89 SQ and 95 Menace make up for it. Back-up CC when Sting is wrestling (70 Charisma).

3. Tom Pritchard (Heel) $600-Another one that I shouldn't have hired, but I loved watching him growing up. Plus, he's the 3rd choice as CC and 2nd choice as RA so he's not too overly priced. Really solid Performance stats and 50's in brawling and technical stats. 80 Stamina and 62 SQ make him a solid contributor for a long time. Plus, he's 27 so I might squeeze out some more stat growth.

4. Shane Douglas (Heel-duh) $600-Only 22 now, he's got nowhere to go but up, and he's pretty darn good now. 62 Brawling stat and 60 Mic skill along with 71 SQ are solid, but he excels in the Performance row. 77/58/76/81/70 so he joins Sting in being very close to calling in the ring. Once he does that, The Undertaker might not be the #1 Heel in SW!

5. Steve Keirn (Heel-huh?) $600-Another old favorite from his Fabulous Ones' days. He's also going to be my go-to Road Agent and training up Sting and Mick Foley. Otherwise, just a guy who's going to move down the card as the fed grows to be the heel gatekeeper.

Mick Foley (Face) $600-You can see my comments on him in my earlier post and see his skills. After I'm done training him up, he might displace Sting as top Face while spreading his massive Brawling skill to everyone on the roster.

Ken Timbs (Heel) $500-Why oh why is he a Main Eventer? Stupid auto-push. He's a distant 3rd in RA running (for the record Liger and Eddie don't speak English which rules them out as RA's). He's not any positive influence backstage. So, take a wild guess who is going to be elevating the Upper Mids and training Mick and Sting?

Only in a mod based in the distant past will you see comments about Shane Douglas usurping The Undertaker AND not be a total a-hole backstage either.

Fixed that quote for you. Have to remember that this is 1987, and both are really young and unproven. Though most potentials are random, I specifically set Sting and Undertaker to Excellent for purely historical reasons. *cough* Yeah, that's why. *cough* The rest is basically a crapshoot. Just wait to you see who I sign at Small/Regional too (based on my trial game though I'm going to be much smarter about it this time although that freaking Regional battle has to be addressed some way). Considering this was truly the Golden Age of wrestling, my 7th grade self watched at least 3 hours of wrestling most Saturdays (and that was without cable).

A quick little learning point before I post the show. I've skipped over one of the last things to do before running your show. Once you have your roster finalized, you need to assign gimmicks to everyone. Most come with gimmicks already assigned, but they don't always work for the worker or with your fed.

There is one key note to pay attention to when you set up your product. As you can see with my product, my fans won't get "subtle" gimmicks. What does this mean? Well, the gimmicks are broken down into five ratings. The 2 obvious ones are Face and Heel. Anyone can use a gimmick that has at least a 50 rating in whichever side they're on, but anything lower than 50 means it is either a Face or Heel-specific gimmick. The third rating is Risk. As you can see on my product, they won't like highly risky gimmicks. Highly risky means over 70, and risky means over 50. So keep those numbers in mind though most mods have very few gimmicks rated over 70 on risk with Occult being the most obvious. The 4th rating is difficulty. This just describes how hard the gimmick is for a wrestler to pull off. If you pick too many high difficulty gimmicks, you risk some not being pulled off which means a poor gimmicks which is one of the negatives I forgot to mention in the dirt sheet positives/negatives.

The last rating is Subtlety. This is going to cause you all kinds of grief if you don't pay attention to that rating. The reason has nothing to do with anything realistic, but is a purely game mechanic. Remember, I said my fans won't like subtle gimmicks. Obviously, a gimmick with a super-high subtlety rating is out, but any gimmick that is lower than 21 on subtlety trips the fans up as well!. So, either you can change almost all of the gimmicks in the database before you start, or you can clone all of the gimmicks in the game and give them 21-29 subtlety ratings. You can use gimmicks with higher subtlety ratings than 29, but I tend to go with what works which 21-29 do. This keeps you from running into a roster full of poor gimmicks which along with hurting EVERYTHING (angles and matches) also ticks the wrestler off which gives you another negative to everything. So, as you can see, avoiding poor gimmicks is a vitally important thing.

The show will be up a couple of hours.

Oh, and Eidenhoek, I agree with you on Mick Foley. I passed on him in my test game for that reason, but I learned the hard way that I need more menacing workers for the Regional battles. Viewed that way, he's worth it just barely. That and I went from 7 Negotiating skill in the test game to 6 this game which is why Pillman and Owen Hart are $100 more per show than they were. And of course, they'll still cost that much 2 years from now thanks to the economy being below 50 in all of that time (after the October crash).

Oh, and one last very important thing before you run your first show. Go into your Finances-->Prices and up your prices by $4. That's the max you can go without ticking off your fans.

Now on to the Cropping with Upload Screenshot errr...The Show.

"Did I tell you guys about that one time me and Stan Lane beat the hell out of the Moondogs all over Memphis (and everywhere else in the South)?" Well, it sure had the young guys' attention which relaxed everyone for the show. Having a veteran presence backstage isn't a bad thing.

The Superior Wrestling Beginnings (I am the king of naming things!) show opens with 11 people who are the most hardcore of wrestling addicts in all Arkansas. (Note: 11 isn't all that bad of an opening attendance unless you have Vocal fan base)

And we kick the show off with a truly southern style booking angle. Sting is in the ring, but before he can speak, Tom Pritchard comes charging out from the back, and they start brawling all over the ring. Not to be outdone (and to boost the angle rating) The Undertaker comes charging out and beats the hell out of both of them before going to the back. 52 Sting and The Undertaker on Menace, Pritchard on Overness. Basically, it was a good way to get some momentum for Tom while using the other two's Menace to do it.

And we hand Liger his title aka the Superior Wrestling Cruiserweight Title. This is my #2 title and is set to Floating. I somehow failed in my other goal of him training my user character in anything though. As the 1st match, it was completely inconsequential as you're always going to have a cold crowd at this point. One note, a gimmick match at Local is a cheap way to buy time. The Ladder match has a 5 minute set-up instead of the standard 2.

And we come to the Semi-Main Event. Owen is there to carry the match psychology-wise while losing to The Undertaker. Oh, and to train Mark up quite a bit which Owen did a great job of doing. Solid match and did everything I wanted it to do.

Taker moves to Color Commentary while Owen fills in as Road Agent for our Main Event. I didn't want to give the #1 Title away on the first match so this is non-title, and it sets up beautifully for the 2nd show to be a 3-way with a cheap finish as The Undertaker beats down Sting for the DQ win. Yeah, I could have had a double DQ, but again, Sting is the owner while Tom is just there to teach which he unfortunately failed to do. A 59 is great at this level which makes the show awesome.

A quick post-show angle to show what the first angle could have been without Pritchard, and I stupidly set it to 5 minutes instead of 6 so they could have gotten a skill increase. Below is the full show results.

And that's how you avoid the dreaded poor angle note. As a quick note, any show that is 20 points better than your popularity is awesome so a show that is greater than 40 points is amazing. Here's why.

And of course, the financial picture is highly important.

This is wonderful as the next show is going to be more expensive (with the 3-way) so I've got some money to play with which is all you can ask for at Local.

Two small things, though before I say anything about them I'd like to say you seem to be doing a good job so far. I certainly never hit angle grades like that for a long long time in 0/0/0/0 games of mine.

* For gimmicks, you can go into the forties for face/heel rating without getting the 'This gimmick would need a turn' message. I've had success running 'Enforcer' gimmicks with faces before, and that has a face rating of 46. (another gimmick with a 41 face rating also doesn't have that note show up).

* I don't think that you need the "X is improving in Y skills" note for there to be actual improvement in stats. I've seen boosts without that note showing up.

Nice to have a great diarist reading this, so thanks Blake. Yeah, if I had run "normal" angles, the grades wouldn't be anywhere close to that (see the Pritchard angle dropped the angle by 24 points with his 35 overness), but I'm so sick of getting that poor angles note. As long as Menace angles are going to be rated like this, I'm going to focus more on those. It's either that or run a 100% fed because there's one fed that threatens me in the upcoming Regional battles. One thing about me playing games. The method might be different or odd, but there's a logic behind them.

However, this does bring up the point I was talking about earlier. If you're running a much more pop fed, those regular angles would be perfectly fine, and conversely, if you're running a much more performance fed, why the hell are you running angles? Seriously, the matches would have rated better making angles almost impossible to run.

Just to add something a little more substantive to this post, I'll touch on why my popularity jumped from 0 to 2 (2.2 to be exact). As I said, most people are set in their ways in TEW from a product standpoint. I love Equal feds because a good performer is valuable, but someone that gains popularity is valuable too. There is one tweak I made to my product. My Modern is normally set to Medium. This really doesn't do anything to the overall product as Medium is where it affects things then again when you have it as Key Feature. There is a simple reason why I did it though, and it has to go back to my key statement: Know Your Mod!

If you have a trending product, you gain popularity much, much, much faster than if you were at No Effect. The rule of thumb is if your show is 10 points better than your pop gains you .3, 20 points gains you .6, and 40 points gains you .9. Then, you add in any modifiers such as trends and the wrestling industry status. So, a strong positive trendy product + a booming industry (92 and increasing) + a 58 show= 2.2 which means if I keep doing that combined with Mid South being a 95% area, I will hit Small (aka where you want to be ASAP when you're Local) in 5 more shows. You hit Small at 11% Importance which is at 11.6 pop. Six months to reach Local is about the best you can do running one show a month.

The 2nd show will possibly be up sometime tomorrow. I'll get into much more stuff once I run up to Small complete with the Regional battles. However, I will leave you with this funny screenshot.

Oh, and please read the background on this superb mod: The Superfly Effect by Genadi. As my bookshelf full of Harry Turtledove books can attest, I love plausible Alternative History which sums up this mod. Note: As happens in the story Hulk Hogan is out for 18 months with an injury so that's why he's missing from WMIII. And I'd like to thank I Effin Rule as that is where I pulled Superior Wrestling (my fed name and logo) from his Effinverse mod AND he produced those cool dual-grades (letters and numbers) too.

Remember, he doesn't speak English. Note to self, don't play him in charades.

I booked myself a quick win under the rule of thumb of if you're not going to gain skills, gain wins. Tried to use the Work the Crowd note to mitigate the Cold Crowd note all small feds get. My User Character can't do that either.

Now, on to the show. You wouldn't know this by how I'm booking, but putting people debuting in your fed in an angle before their first match is usually a really bad idea. The reason is that for your main people, they will gain more momentum from winning a match than being in an angle at Local-Regional. Obviously, if you bring in a Sean McFly into TCW or someone similar, you can stick them in a 95+ rated angle which will be better than most 1st matches. For instance, Owen Hart has a 64 momentum from losing to The Undertaker last month while Pritchard has a 53 from debuting in the angle.

Sting (49) and Pritchard (37) rated on Overness; Foley and Undertaker on Menace. Showing once again how badly regular angles would do.

Straight into the 1st match. This one the Liger Title and share his abilities with the roster match. Unlike last show, he did with one of my Hot Prospects.

We move to the Semi-Main Event match between two debuting main eventers. This match was supposed to help Foley gain psych and technical while Keirn handled the match. Unfortunately, the match didn't do too well (remember for an equal fed you either have to have two skilled wrestlers or two popular wrestlers or one of each; this one had one skilled and no popular wrestlers).

Finally, we reach the main event of the evening. A 3-way match for the Superior Wrestling Championship. However, I goofed and put this as an elimination match instead of a regular 3-way. So, uh ignore the ending of the match for story purposes. Note: You don't have enough control over the order of elimination in matches in the game along with the 2/3 falls matches. The game will always have one of the top two most popular wrestlers be the last one pinned which is why even though Pritchard was named the loser he went out first.

As Sting is getting ready to address the crowd thanking the 11 for cheering him on, The Undertaker gets ready to attack. Mick, the Color Commentator for the match, makes his 2nd save of Sting. This time I made sure it was a 6 minute angle. Sting-Entertainment; Taker and Mick on Menace.

Here's the entire show. Slightly worse than the 1st show even though the main event was better thanks to the semi-main being a whopping 8 points worse. Overall, still a very successful show with both titles being owned now.

And the financials which look pretty good considering the extra $600 wrestler and stagnant attendance.

I'm going to run all of my shows at once until I hit Small (4 shows in all) without any frills. However, I thought I'd put up some screens, and I would really like an answer to the question.

But, but, but...I was aiming to hire the Freebirds and bring them back to Texas at Regional! Grrr....

This one is specifically for Eidenhoek.

Now, can someone please explain why my merchandise plummeted from $850 to $60? The economy is dropping, but it is still at 70. I didn't fire anyone, change who was on what brand either. Seriously annoying as I lost about 25% of my meager bankroll.

Oh, and here's one last screenshot. He's a game-created wrestler that I couldn't pass up. Carl Wood has 15 popularity across the US. $450/month